Tensions rise in United Auto Workers contract talks with Stellantis as strike threat looms


TOM KRISHER
Tue, August 8, 2023 


 The Ram 1500 Revolution electric battery powered pickup truck is displayed on stage during the Stellantis keynote at the CES tech show on Jan. 5, 2023, in Las Vegas. Tensions rose in contract talks between the United Auto Workers union and Stellantis on Tuesday, Aug. 8, with the union president accusing the company of seeking concessions in contract talks when the union wants gains, as a September strike threat looms. 

(AP Photo/John Locher, File)

DETROIT (AP) — Tensions rose in contract talks between the United Auto Workers union and Stellantis on Tuesday with the union president accusing the company of seeking concessions in contract talks when the union wants gains, as a September strike threat looms.

UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement that Stellantis has broken a pledge not to seek givebacks in this round of talks, in which the union is seeking more than 40% general pay raises over four years, restoration of pensions for newer hires, cost-of-living increases, an end to wage tiers, and other benefits.

A union spokesman said singling out Stellantis doesn’t mean the UAW has picked a company as a strike target, and it could choose all three.

The union's contracts with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis all expire at 11:59 p.m. Sept. 14, and Fain has told workers they should be willing to go on strike to make major gains.

The UAW represents about 146,000 workers at the three companies. In the past its contracts had set the standard for manufacturing wages and benefits for blue-collar jobs nationwide.

As the industry undergoes a historic transition from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles, the automakers will need thousands of workers to staff battery plants that are joint ventures with battery companies. The UAW also sees this year’s contract as a crucial opportunity to ensure representation in the industry’s jobs of the future.

In a Facebook Live appearance Tuesday, Fain clearly threatened to strike one or more of the companies. He told workers the UAW strike fund is healthy and the leadership has a plan for a work stoppage. “Come Sept. 14, if these companies don't deliver, they're going to see this plan unfold,” he said.

Fain said bargainers are making progress, but he's been shocked to see Stellantis' list of demands. The company, he said, wants to be able to punish workers more for missing work, has proposed additional tiers of wages, and is seeking cuts to existing medical coverage. It also wants changes in the profit-sharing formula, and cuts in 401(K) contributions, he said. "Management chose to spit in our faces,” he said.

Top scale production workers at the companies make about $32 per hour, and the companies have said it’s much higher when benefits and bonuses are added in. Ford, for instance, says in a statement that benefits and bonuses push the yearly package value to about $112,000.

Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, said there is some “deep friction” between the union and Stellantis, especially over scheduling that can require workers to be on the job 12 hours per day for seven days per week.


“It doesn't surprise me that there's tension between those two parties,” Masters said. “But I wouldn't read more into it than that. I don't think it means that Stellantis is the likely target” in bargaining and possibly for a strike.

A message was left Tuesday seeking comment from Stellantis. On Aug. 1 the company said that it has been clear from the start that it's not seeking concessions.

Last week the company said in a statement that intends to fairly reward union employees for their contribution to the company's success. “It will be critical to find common ground that doesn’t jeopardize our ability to continue investing in the affordable products, services and technology that our customers want and that would allow us to continue providing good jobs here at home,” the statement said.

Executives at all three companies say they have invested in U.S. manufacturing and they have plowed much of their profits to develop and build electric vehicles.

The union says wages have been stagnant for years after it agreed to concessions to get the companies through the Great Recession.

On a day of disruptions, L.A.'s elected and labor leaders promise more talks

David Zahniser, Rachel Uranga, Rebecca Ellis, Akiya Dillon, Milla Surjadi

Tue, August 8, 2023 

Los Angeles city workers protest at City Hall on Tuesday during a one-day strike over what they say are unfair labor practices by the city. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Trash went uncollected. Dozens of swimming pools were shuttered. Cargo ships at the Port of Los Angeles remained miles offshore. And traffic officers missed their shifts, sparing inattentive motorists the sting of a parking citation.

Workers with Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents more than 7,000 city employees, walked off the job Tuesday, interrupting or halting an array of government operations in a boisterous demand for respect.

The 24-hour strike brought picket lines to City Hall, Griffith Park, Van Nuys Airport, Los Angeles International Airport and municipal facilities in Hollywood, Lincoln Heights, San Pedro, the San Fernando Valley and elsewhere. City workers, marching in single file and clutching signs, spoke unhappily about increased workloads, rising housing costs, long commutes and what they described as unfair labor practices by city negotiators.

At the same time, the demonstrations lacked some of the heat and anger that surfaced in recent months during prolonged strikes by other Southern California unions — hospitality workers and Hollywood's writers and actors. In the city's back-and-forth, both sides promised more talks very soon, saying they want productive negotiations.

At one point, SEIU Local 721 President and Executive Director David Green even offered praise for Mayor Karen Bass, who heads the city's five-member bargaining committee. Appearing at a noisy rally outside City Hall, he called on an estimated 2,000 workers to applaud the mayor, who oversees the negotiators he has repeatedly derided as "out of touch."

"This strike is not a strike against our Mayor Karen Bass. She's always been there for working people," he told the crowd. "So I think let's give a round of applause for the mayor right now."

Read more: Column: This 'hot labor summer' is unifying Los Angeles in a way few could have imagined

Green said he spoke with Bass the day before the strike, and since then fielded phone calls from at least four council members, who will ultimately vote on any salary agreement with the SEIU. Those council members, he said, "want to come back to the table."

Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez, a former labor organizer, separately described the strike as "an opportunity to listen to the workers who perform the most essential functions in our city."

"These workers deserve to be heard and they deserve a fair contract with livable wages and healthy working conditions,” he said in a statement.

Bass has repeatedly pushed back on the idea that city negotiators had engaged in unfair labor practices. She and the other four members of the city's Executive Employee Relations Committee, which gives bargaining instruction to city negotiators, are scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss negotiations with the SEIU.

“The city will always be available to make progress with SEIU 721 and we will continue bargaining in good faith," she said.

Even amid Tuesday's show of union strength, the city continued to deliver an array of services.

The Los Angeles Zoo, which has SEIU members in its workforce, nevertheless welcomed visitors. Dozens of branch libraries opened their doors. The city's 311 system fielded service requests. All six animal shelters, which city leaders had assumed would be closed earlier in the week, were up and running, Bass said.

SEIU Local 721, which represents gardeners, mechanics, custodians, trash truck drivers and many other city workers, began its strike at 12:01 a.m., describing it as a protest against unfair labor practices by management and a rebuttal to the city's failure to negotiate in good faith.

Outside LAX, dozens of mechanics and custodians began marching before dawn. By 7:30 a.m., the crowd had grown to about 100. Several voiced frustration over the large number of vacant positions that plague city agencies, forcing workers to take huge amounts of overtime.

DeVonte Butler, a 33-year-old maintenance and construction worker at the airport, said he and his colleagues are "working around the clock to catch up.” Although he has been earning extra money working overtime, Butler said the high cost of housing and childcare had left him living paycheck to paycheck.

Custodian Hilda Sotelo, 49, voiced similar concerns, saying the sprawling terminals of LAX once had double the number of cleaning staff. Last year, 66 million passengers made their way through LAX, the most since the pandemic.

Sotelo said she and her colleagues are stressed out while scrubbing bathroom after bathroom. When they go on break, she said, passengers ask them for directions or other information.

“We are doing the work of three people,” she said.

Despite the presence of scores of striking workers, most of the airport's operations continued without interruption. With fewer custodians on duty, some bathrooms were closed. Flights that typically require shuttles were rerouted to other gates.

Dae Levine, a spokesperson with Los Angeles World Airports, said the agency was working to ensure that operations were "as close to normal as possible."

Tuesday's walkout also had a significant effect on the city's recreation sites, triggering the closure of dozens of swimming pools. In Boyle Heights, parents arrived at the gate of Roosevelt Pool only to find it had been padlocked.

"Nobody even told us they were canceled," said Crystal Bedoy, ushering her sons back into the family's white sport utility vehicle. "Usually my sister gets a phone call, but none of the parents have heard from anyone.”

The disruptions also stretched to the city's southernmost edge.

At the Port of Los Angeles, about 300 Harbor Department employees are represented by SEIU, including deckhands and pilot service boat operators, who play a pivotal role in ensuring a cargo vessel's arrival. With those workers on strike, four container ships had their arrival delayed by one day, according to a department official.

Two other containers ships postponed their departure.

"The Port looks forward to the return of a full work force on Wednesday," said Phillip Sanfield, a spokesperson for the agency.

Across the city, residential trash pickup in many cases was canceled, delaying refuse removal schedules by one day for the remainder of the week. Homeless encampment cleanups scheduled for Tuesday by the Bureau of Sanitation were rescheduled to Saturday.

Sanitation worker Richard Joyal, who held a picket sign outside City Hall, said he showed up to Tuesday's rally in the hopes that it would spur city officials to return to the bargaining table. He expressed some sympathy for residents who would not receive refuse collection Tuesday.

"We hope the residents will understand and back us," said the West Covina resident, who works on a city team that collects mattresses and other bulky items left on the sidewalk.

SEIU Local 721 is currently operating under a one-year contract that has provided its members with a 3% raise and a one-time bonus equal to 5% of a worker’s annual salary. That bonus was paid out in a single lump sum last month.

The union has not yet submitted a proposal for its next contract. Instead, labor leaders have spent part of this year in negotiations over more than 400 side proposals, which deal with such issues as bilingual pay and compensation to help pay for boots or other safety equipment.

SEIU Local 721 filed an unfair labor practices claim several weeks ago, after city negotiators attempted to combine the talks over those side issues with bargaining over the union's next contract. City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo, the city's lead negotiator, denied that his office engaged in unfair labor practices, saying the two sides have already reached agreement on dozens of side issues.

City Council President Paul Krekorian said the city's negotiating team had been engaged in "serious negotiations" with the Coalition of L.A. City Unions — a group that includes SEIU — since January, reaching 76 tentative agreements.

“Although today’s work stoppage is regrettable, the city will continue to negotiate in good faith with the coalition, and I have every confidence that we will achieve a positive outcome," he said in a statement.

The union's contract includes language barring its members from going on strike or staging “other concerted action resulting in the withholding of service.” However, state labor law allows the union to go on strike to protest unfair labor practices, according to SEIU officials.

Green, the SEIU president, portrayed Tuesday's 24-hour strike as a success, saying it has given the union "a lot of momentum" as it heads back into negotiations. The walkout, he said, showed that the city's workers "are really a force to be reckoned with."

"The days of disrespecting city workers is over," he said. "And you're seeing it with solidarity summer.".

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

UPS delivery-driver job searches soar 50% after union secures wage hike that could see workers get a $170,000 yearly package

Sawdah Bhaimiya
Updated Wed, August 9, 2023

Indeed said more users had been searching for UPS delivery-driver roles after the wage-boost announcement.NurPhoto / Getty Images

Jobs as UPS delivery drivers are in hot demand after its union secured a wage boost for workers.

Indeed said it had seen a 50% rise in searches for "UPS" and "United Parcel Service," per Bloomberg.

UPS CEO Carol Tomé said drivers would make about $170,000 at the end of the new five-year contract.

There's been a spike in interest for UPS delivery-driver roles on the job-listing site Indeed after the company's union secured a pay rise for employees above industry standards, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

Indeed observed a 50% rise in users searching "UPS" or "United Parcel Service" in its job title section a week after the union reached a deal, according to data viewed by Bloomberg. Searches for "delivery driver" generally did not increase, signaling a specific interest in UPS.

The increased interest follows UPS coming to a tentative agreement with the Teamsters union last month about employee wages and benefits. The union represents more than 340,000 UPS delivery drivers and package handlers.

To avoid a worker strike, UPS agreed on July 25 to provide $30 billion in new money over a five-year period to boost wages, benefits, and working conditions for employees. It set a minimum wage for part-time workers at $21 an hour and full-time workers at $49 an hour on average, making them the "highest paid delivery drivers in the nation," the union said. This deal has yet to be approved by union members.

UPS CEO Carol Tomé said on an earnings call this week that full-time drivers would earn about $170,000 annually in salary and benefits by the end of the five-year period. These drivers currently earn, on average, about $95,000 a year with a further $50,000 in benefits.

The company said part-time union employees would earn $25.75 an hour as well as healthcare and pension benefits by the end of the contract.

Teamsters UPS union members were preparing to strike if an agreement was not reached. UPS' proposal has yet to be approved by union members.

UPS and Indeed did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 Business Insider

UPS drivers’ new $170k per year deal shows that unions (and Joe Biden) may just save the middle class after all


Chloe Berger
Updated Wed, August 9, 2023 

Dogs might not be so happy to know that their sworn enemies are about to make salaries in the high six figures. After contract negotiations this summer, full-time drivers for UPS saw their salaries boosted from $145,000 to $170,000 annually including benefits, according to data shared by the shipping company on a recent call.

While not everyone is winning as much as these UPS workers, this represents a symbolic triumph for unions, the middle class and the labor-friendly White House (excluding German Shepherds, in the case of Joe Biden’s noshing pet, “Champ”), as it’s a testament to collective efforts to boost the middle class for the first time in a generation—or two. The public has noticed—jobs site Indeed reported a 50% surge in searches for “UPS” or “United Parcel Service” within a week of the new contract, Bloomberg reported.

Biden’s famous adoration of ice cream has really only been paralleled or eclipsed by his love for this middle class. His campaign premise to revive the average American quickly led to a new word: Bidenomics, a portmanteau (much like Obamanomics, Reaganomics before, or Hobama as of late), that refers to, in Biden’s own words: “building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down.”

In that vein, Biden hasn’t just been governing in opposition to his former opponent President Trump, but also the Republican hero Ronald Reagan, the onetime union leader during the last Hollywood dual strike who decades later slashed taxes for the wealthy as part of what became known as trickle-down economics. Tax breaks to the rich helped the rich, of course, but data has progressively mounted that they didn’t help the middle class whose wages stagnated for decades, barely keeping pace with inflation.

Now it’s Biden’s turn at the wheel, and drivers are getting paid famously. Rather than building from the top down, Joe’s strategy of bottom up and middle out, which can be seen in his push to invest in manufacturing jobs and record-breaking wage growth for those in historically lower-compensated positions. Of course, this doesn't come without accusations from the now neglected rich, which was faring quite well the last time fanny packs were big. The waning glory days of the wealthy is deemed the “richcession,” where the economy may be growing overall but just doesn’t feel so good anymore for those at the upper echelon. Those with six-figure incomes sometimes report feeling like they need more to be financially comfortable, and even if they’ve continued to win the economy by nature of their riches, they sometimes feel anxious—but that dog won’t hunt these days.

Biden and unions deliver on their promise

The largest union in the nation, Teamsters, recently bargained for a historical contract on behalf of UPS. While not every worker is getting that hefty salary, part-time workers also won a pay raise of around $21 hourly, and employees were finally able to have better conditions like air conditioning. “This contract sets a new standard in the labor movement and raises the bar for all workers,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien in a statement.

This UPS victory might be the clearest sign yet that Biden’s plan to invest heavily in the middle and lower class has a real-life impact on wage gains. But the success is not Biden’s alone, rather it’s also a signal regarding the influence of a strong union backing. Threatening to strike if their demands were not met, the increasingly consumer-dependent America could not stand to be without its millions of packages every month.

To be sure, one historic contract does not by itself correct the long-term trend against union membership—or a middle class shrinking for decades. Despite increasingly favorable sentiment for unions, actual union membership is the lowest on record. But it does show that unions can get the job done, and signals to vulnerable, oft-unionized workers in white-collar fields that protections can get them the benefits they are looking for.

But there is reason to believe in a turning of the tide. The hottest summer in 100,000 years has also been named the summer of strikes, as multiple unions in the entertainment world have joined the fight for better wages (and A.I. regulations). Next up could be a historic triple strike in Detroit as the United Auto Workers, a historic union that has brand-new leadership after a series of scandals, is determined to win a new contract from the Big Three automakers..

While UPS projects low revenue this quarter, their new salary for workers has attracted many workers. Blue-collar jobs have recently struggled to attract Gen Z employees and others due to poor working conditions and a lack of fair pay. The future for the middle class may have arrived at America’s doorstep, and they wear brown shorts and sometimes spar with your dog while bringing you the package you’ve been waiting for.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

UPS and other shippers have a new vulnerability: their workers

Alexis Keenan
·Reporter
Tue, August 8, 2023

The load is getting heavier for package-delivery companies as they wrestle with higher worker pay while demand shrinks across their industry.

The latest reminder of those twin challenges came Tuesday when United Parcel Service (UPS) reported a sharp drop in revenue and profit during the second quarter.

The shipping giant pared its annual revenue outlook and operating margin, citing the costs associated with a new labor agreement that would sweeten pay and benefits for roughly 340,000 workers.

The new contract between UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters averted a potential strike that could have cost the US economy billions. The union said the deal was worth $30 billion. Rank-and-file members are voting this month to ratify the pact.

UPS CEO Carol Tomé told analysts during a call Tuesday that the second quarter was "challenging," and said the new contract was a "win-win" for both parties. She also said the company's drawn-out negotiations with the union caused it to lose customers, some of which have returned.

UPS CEO Carol Tomé. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

"One thing that was very important for Teamster leadership was to front load some of the wage inflation and we agreed to do that," Tomé said. "So that does put a little pressure on the margin...We'll have a bit of pressure for the next year, through August of next year, but then the inflation is very manageable."

UPS stock was down roughly 1% in midday trading.

UPS isn’t the only shipper feeling such pressures as the industry adjusts to waning demand that peaked early in the pandemic.

Union pilots at FedEx (FDX) are pressing for a significant step up in pay, and trucking company Yellow (YELL), blamed the same union – the International Brotherhood of Teamsters – for propelling it into bankruptcy earlier this week.

Yellow Corp. filed for bankruptcy this week. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

"What we're seeing now is actually workers exercising their ability to demand more," Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations Worker Institute. "So they are a liability for companies because workers now are not willing to believe that a company cannot take on less profits by giving them more wages."

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien has made it clear the union has its sights on Amazon (AMZN) too.

In July, O’Brien told Bloomberg that he planned to use the agreement reached with UPS as a template to attract Amazon delivery workers and to "set the tone" for worker benefits.

Amazon doesn't hire its drivers directly and instead uses drivers employed by third party companies.

Sean O'Brien, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

"UPS has one of the best contracts now, and that emboldens workers to ask Amazon to do better, to ask FedEx to do better," Campos-Medina said.

Brian Newman, UPS executive vice president and chief financial officer, told analysts the company saw more customer loss than anticipated as noise levels around its labor negotiations increased.

During the quarter, UPS's total average daily volume was down 9.9% and in June volumes fell 12.2%.

Increased labor costs and a softening economy proved more consequential for Yellow.

After failed negotiations with the Teamsters in July, the company laid off all 30,000 of its workers, including 22,000 union members, and filed for bankruptcy.

In a federal lawsuit against the Teamsters, Yellow blamed the union for causing negotiation delays that kept Yellow from carrying out a financial restructuring plan.

In its bankruptcy petition, Yellow reported total assets of $2.15 billion falling short of total debt of $2.59 billion. The delivery service received a $700 million loan in 2020 under a pandemic government relief program.

At FedEx, negotiations are underway between the company and its 5,200 unionized pilots, represented by Air Line Pilots Association. The pilots turned down the company’s latest offer for a 30% pay bump and 30% increases in pension benefits.

In its fourth quarter, the company's most recent report, it posted revenue of $21.93 billion, down from $24.4 billion in the same quarter last year.

Alexis Keenan is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on Twitter @alexiskweed.

How faulty wind turbines threaten to bring down a German industrial powerhouse


Howard Mustoe
Mon, August 7, 2023 

Wrinkles in rotor blades and faulty gears are among a number of manufacturing flaws uncovered - Matthew Lloyd/Bloomberg

When Siemens announced a deal to merge its wind power business with rival Gamesa in 2017, executives saw only upside.

Then Siemens chief executive Joe Kaeser said there was “a clear and compelling industrial logic” that would make “renewable energy more cost-effective”.

Yet the turbine industry has proved as fickle as the wind.

Siemens warned on Monday that it was facing a €4.5bn (£3.9bn) loss this year as a result of issues within its wind turbine division.

Wrinkles in rotor blades and faulty gears are among the problems uncovered, which have led to operating issues and warranty claims from buyers. Inflation has only added to headaches.

The admissions of failures wiped as much as €6bn off the value of Siemens on Monday.

The German industrial powerhouse has been in the wind power market for almost two decades and Gamesa, which was until last year a joint venture, traces its roots in the industry back to the 1970s.

Yet a rapid expansion of its manufacturing in recent years has left the combined business over-extended.

Jochen Eickholt, chief executive of Siemens Gamesa, admitted: “We sold turbines too quickly,” describing the company as a “victim of our own ambitions”.

Siemens Gamesa manufactures blades for wind turbines, which can measure over 100m in length and are made up of many layers of material.

The technology must be highly precise and testing uncovered flaws causing “abnormal vibrations”, which could lead to damages and other issues.

Jochen Eickholt, chief executive of Siemens Gamesa, has put the issues down to “wrinkles” within layers of the blades and has blamed suppliers. Some have been cut off in response.

Hiccups weren’t picked up earlier because the company was focused on the rapid introduction of new turbines and the ramping up of capacity, Siemens Energy chief executive Christian Bruch said.

Kathryn Porter, an independent analyst at energy consultancy Watt Logic, said: “There’s been pressure from the developers to have bigger turbines, because then obviously it’s easier to build, but there have been a lot of warranty problems.

“Now you’re getting people saying behind the scenes, maybe we need to have a pause on this bigger and bigger turbine thing because they just keep breaking.”

Profitability has been weak in the industry for a long time, she said.


Problems at Siemens’ turbine business are not new. The company said in June that the issues would cost €1bn to fix and Bruch described the problems as “more severe than I thought possible”.

Issues have been focused within its onshore wind turbine business, which is a tougher market than offshore.

However, worryingly, new issues are still being uncovered.

Deutsche Bank analyst Gael de-Bray said in a note: “As we feared, in addition to the onshore quality issues, [Siemens Energy] expects higher product costs and further challenges in the ramp up process in offshore, which led to additional charges of €600m.”

The German company is not alone in struggling: its competitors and its customers are also battling a more expensive landscape for the green energy industry.

Energy giant Vattenfall last month shelved plans for a major wind farm off the coast of Norfolk - Vattenfall

Vestas, the world’s biggest wind turbine maker, lost €1.5bn last year after a surge in costs, particularly metal prices.

Chief executive Henrik Andersen said in May: “The wind industry remains challenged by political uncertainty, slow permitting processes and high inflation, which we expect to continue throughout 2023.”

Operators face significant challenges too. Energy giant Vattenfall last month shelved plans for a major wind farm off the coast of Norfolk after soaring inflation made the project unviable.

Wind farms in the UK are largely governed by contracts for difference (CfDs), which are government deals guaranteeing operators a stable price for their power for 15 years. This price stability helps developers to borrow the money required to build them.

However, the combination of surging costs and fixed earnings long into the future means budgets can easily be blown.

Sweden’s Vattenfall said its costs had surged 40pc since agreeing a deal with Whitehall last year. The surge rendered the project, which had the capacity to power 1.5 million homes, unviable.

Ana Musat, executive director for policy at industry group RenewableUK, said: “The economic circumstances are quite difficult across the board, we’ve seen really high inflation, we’ve seen interest rates going up. And if you’re in a capital intensive industry, like this one, those will impact you immediately.”

In CfD auctions, companies put forward a “strike price” they will sell their electricity for and the most competitive offers result in subsidy deals with the Government. When market power prices go below this strike price, the company’s revenues are topped up – and when it rises above, they make payments to the Government. CfDs are funded through levies on consumer bills.

The UK is currently in the middle of another round of bidding for the contracts. In this current allocation round, which finishes next month, offshore wind is competing with solar and onshore wind, which are both cheaper to build.

The maximum strike price for offshore wind has been set at £44 per megawatt hour for this round, called AR5, a very similar price to the last round which concluded last summer, dubbed AR4.

Duncan Clark, head of Ørsted UK and Ireland, which is developing the Hornsea 3 windfarm off the Yorkshire coast, said current wind power deals were “excellent value” for taxpayers but warned the company had been hit by “an extraordinary combination” of higher costs since then.

Musat said: “We have had 11pc inflation, interest rates going up by 5pc. So I think just to expect projects to be able to deliver under those same cost profiles, is really not realistic. Something’s going to give.”

All of this means the wind power industry faces more, not fewer, stumbling blocks.

Siemens Energy has put its entire wind division, Siemens Gamesa, under review despite only recently taking full control.

The review will look at “all options”, Bruch said when asked whether parts could be sold. An update is expected in November.

Yet as problems mount, Bruch is still optimistic. “We believe more than ever in the potential of wind power,” he told reporters.

Investors hope that proves more than just hot air.

Top economist Paul Krugman says food inflation has mostly been caused by Russia

Jennifer Sor
Aug 9, 2023,

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid


Food inflation has mostly been brought on by Russia, top economist Paul Krugman said.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has disrupted agriculture and raised fertilizer and natural gas prices.

"We would definitely see some relief if Vladimir Putin called this invasion off," Krugman added.

Soaring food prices have largely been driven by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, not by anything that happened in the US, according to top economist Paul Krugman.

The Nobel laureate pointed to accelerating food prices over the past year, with the Food and Agriculture Organization's Food Price Index rising to 123.9 in July. That's 12% cheaper than what food prices were last year, but still well-above prices in the summer of 2020, when the index dipped below 100.

Observers have argued that spiraling food prices are the result of out-of-control spending under the Biden administration, and "greedflation," a phenomenon where businesses hike prices in a bid to reap even higher profits in times of widespread inflation.

But the primary driver of "foodflation" exists outside of the US -- and lies largely in the hands of Russia, Krugman argues. That's because Russia's invasion of Ukraine has disrupted agricultural production across Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan, which has affected the available supply of food and pushed up prices. That's raised the risk of a full-blown food crisis unfolding, experts say, with protests and breaking out around the globe as food grows scarce.

Russia has even taken measures to attack key export hubs for food in Ukraine, and sent wheat prices soaring in July after backing out of the Black Sea export agreement and bombing the port of Odesa.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine also spiked fertilizer prices, as the nation is one of the world's largest exporter of fertilizer. Russian natural gas, which is used to produce fertilizer in Europe, also got more expensive as Putin slashed key pipeline flows to the continent.

Those factors have worked to stoke food prices, which was been worsened by agricultural disruptions stemming from climate change and extreme weather events, Krugman said. Still, Russia's impact is still "at the top of the list" for culprits driving food inflation.

"Russia may be the only government able to have much impact on world food inflation; we would definitely see some relief if Vladimir Putin called this invasion off (which he won't)," he added.

But inflation overall appears to be cooling as high interest rates in the US rein in the economy. Headline prices accelerated just 3% year-per-year in June, well-below the 9.1% recorded in June 2022.

Markets are now waiting for the July Consumer Price Index report to be released on Thursday, which should give more direction on how inflation is responding to tighter financial conditions. Headline prices are expected to accelerate 3.42% year-per-year, slightly higher than June's inflation reading, according to the Cleveland Fed.

WAR IS RAPE
Sudanese suffer sexual violence on 'sickening scale,' UN says

PATRIARCHY IS MISOGYNY & FEMICIDE


Wed, August 9, 2023 
By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Sexual violence is being committed in Sudan on a "sickening scale," while fighting in the Darfur region is reopening "old wounds of ethnic tension" that could engulf the country, United Nations officials told the Security Council on Wednesday.

"The alarming accounts of sexual violence that are heard from people who have fled to Port Sudan are just a fraction of those being repeated at a sickening scale from conflict hotspots across the country," said senior U.N. aid official Edem Wosornu.

War broke out on April 15 - four years after the overthrow of former President Omar al-Bashir during a popular uprising. Tensions between the army (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which jointly staged a coup in 2021, erupted over disagreements about a plan to transition to civilian rule.

"The fighting in Darfur continues to reopen the old wounds of ethnic tension of past conflicts in the region," Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, a senior U.N. official on Africa, told the council. "This is deeply worrying, and could quickly engulf the country in a prolonged ethnic conflict with regional spillovers."

In the early 2000s "Janjaweed" militias - from which the RSF formed - helped the government crush a rebellion by mainly non-Arab groups in Darfur. Some 300,000 people were killed, the U.N. estimates, and Sudanese leaders are wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide and crimes against humanity.

The current war has seen more than 4 million people flee their homes, of which 3.2 million people are internally displaced and nearly 900,000 people have crossed the borders into Chad, Egypt, South Sudan and other countries, the U.N. said.

"The humanitarian impacts are made worse by credible evidence to suggest serious violations of international humanitarian law by both the SAF and the RSF which could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity," Britain's U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward told the Security Council.

Russia's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva said Moscow was concerned by the situation in Sudan and pledged support for the Sudanese authorities. She accused Western countries of interfering with the Sudanese internal political process and slammed the use of unilateral sanctions.

Both sides in the Sudan conflict have claimed military advances in recent days but there are no signs of a decisive breakthrough. Efforts by Saudi Arabia and the United States to secure a ceasefire have stalled.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters after the council meeting that both sides were responsible for ethnic and sexual violence, adding: "There are no innocents here."

Sudan's U.N. Ambassador Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed told the Security Council that Sudanese troops "are not involved in any sexual or gender violence and the party involved in this atrocity is very well known."

There was no immediate response from the RSF to the U.N. Security Council meeting. The RSF has said it is committed to upholding international humanitarian law and would work to prevent any abuses by its forces or others against civilians.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

https://frauenkultur.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Against-Our-Will.pdf

Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape - Frauenkultur

AGAINST. OUR WILL. MEN,. WOMEN. AND. RAPE. SUSAN BROWNMILLER. AUTHOR OF. FEMININITY. "Chilling and monumental... Deserves a place next to those.

Iraq's extreme temperatures a 'wake-up call' for world: UN

AFP
Wed, August 9, 2023 

A fishing boat is moored along a branch of the Euphrates River in Al-Hamza town near Hilla in central Iraq, where river water levels have fallen (Ahmad AL-RUBAYE)

Iraq's rising temperatures and protracted drought are a "wake-up call" for the world, United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said in Baghdad on Wednesday.

Turk spoke to AFP during a visit to Iraq, which the UN says is one of the five countries in the world most touched by some effects of climate change.

Iraq has been experiencing its fourth consecutive summer of drought, and temperatures in parts of the country including the capital Baghdad, and in the far south, have been around 50 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit).

"Rising temperatures plus the drought, and the fact that the loss of diversity is a reality, is a wake-up call for Iraq and for the world," Turk said.

"When we look into the situation of these communities we look into our future," he added.

"The era of global boiling has come and here we can live it and see it on a daily basis," Turk said at the end of his four-day visit, echoing comments by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last month.

Guterres had said: "The era of global warming has ended. The era of global boiling has arrived." He called for immediate and bold action, after scientists confirmed July was on track to be the hottest month in recorded history.

In addition to declining rainfall and rising temperatures, Iraqi authorities say upstream dam construction by Turkey and Iran has affected the volume of water in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers through Iraq.

In Iraq's far south, high salinity has harmed fishing in the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where the Tigris and Euphrates converge before spilling into the Gulf.

Turk, who visited the south, told a news conference that he was shown by community leaders and others "pictures of the lush date palm trees that -- just 30 years ago -- lined parts of the now dried-up Shatt al-Arab waterway".

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani has vowed that battling climate change would be one of his priorities, but activists say little has been done.

Turk told the news conference there had been reports "of violence, intimidation and death threats against environmental activists" in Iraq.

One of them, engineer Jassim al-Assadi of Nature Iraq, the country's leading conservation group, was abducted for two weeks in February and held by armed men.

Iraq water crisis could have regional consequences, UN human rights chief warns

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, speaks during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Wed, August 9, 2023

BAGHDAD (AP) — The United Nations' human rights chief on Wednesday warned that Iraq's water crisis could affect other countries in the region.

Severe water shortages in Iraq because of climate change and government mismanagement have destroyed wheat and fruit harvests, and killed off fish and livestock. Humanitarian organizations have warned for years that drought and mismanagement could deprive millions of people of water from the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, which also run through neighboring war-torn Syria.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk made the comments at a news conference in Baghdad following a four-day visit to the Iraqi capital, the oil-rich southern city of Basra and Irbil in the northern semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

Basra, where the mouth of the two rivers meet, has been hit hardest by the water crisis, turning areas once fertile into desert and forcing water purification systems to shut down because of rising salinity.

“Just yesterday (Tuesday), the minister of water resources announced that water levels in Iraq are the lowest they have ever been," Türk said. ”What is happening here is a window into a future that is now coming for other parts of the world."

Türk said the country's climate crisis derives from a “toxic mix” of global warming and drought, poor water management, violence and “oil industry excesses.” He spoke about decades of draining marshlands in the country's south, saying restoration could be complicated, especially at a time of surging temperatures. He fears that this will worsen climate displacement and migration.

“Civil society actors spoke to me about the chronic pollution in Basra and the resulting health problems in the community, including high rates of cancer and other serious ailments," the U.N. human rights chief said,

He slammed ongoing lawsuits against journalists and activists talking about the matter, saying it has impacted freedom of expression, and reports of violence and threats against environmental activists.

Türk held meetings with Iraqi government and judicial officials, most notably Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani, and Speaker Mohammed Al-Halbousi. They discussed a handful of human rights issues, including the death penalty, overcrowding in prisons, and the need for strengthening human rights institutions in the country.

“I have also called on the authorities to declare an official moratorium on the use of the death penalty in Iraq — where more than 11,000 people remain on death row,” he said.

___

Kareem Chehayeb contributed to this report from Beirut.

Armenians face genocide in Azerbaijan, former International Criminal Court prosecutor warns


A bridge and a checkpoint are seen on a road towards the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, in Armenia, Friday, July 28, 2023. The former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court warned that Azerbaijan is preparing genocide against ethnic Armenians in its Nagorno-Karabakh region and called for the UN Security Council to bring the matter before the ICC. A report by Luis Moreno Ocampo issued Tuesday, Aug. 8 said Azerbaijan's blockade of the only road leading from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh seriously impedes food, medical supplies and other essentials to the region of about 120,000 people.

(Hayk Manukyan/PHOTOLURE via AP)


ABBY SEWELL
Updated Wed, August 9, 2023

KORNIDZOR, Armenia (AP) — The former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court warned that Azerbaijan is preparing genocide against ethnic Armenians in its Nagorno-Karabakh region and called for the U.N. Security Council to bring the matter before the international tribunal.

A report by Luis Moreno Ocampo issued Tuesday said Azerbaijan's blockade of the only road leading from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh seriously impedes food, medical supplies and other essentials to the region of about 120,000 people.

“There is a reasonable basis to believe that a genocide is being committed,” Ocampo's report said, noting that a U.N. convention defines genocide as including "deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.”

“There are no crematories and there are no machete attacks. Starvation is the invisible genocide weapon. Without immediate dramatic change, this group of Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks,” the report said.


Nagorno-Karabakh is a region within Azerbaijan that came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by the Armenian military in separatist fighting that ended in 1994. Armenian forces also took control of substantial territory around the region.

Azerbaijan regained control of the surrounding territory in a six-week war with Armenia in 2020. A Russia-brokered armistice that ended the war left the region's capital, Stepanakert, connected to Armenia only by a road known as the Lachin Corridor, along which Russian peacekeeping forces were supposed to ensure free movement.

A government representative in Azerbaijan dismissed the report from Ocampo, who was the ICC’s first prosecutor, saying it “contains unsubstantiated allegations and accusations.”

“It is biased and distorts the real situation on the ground and represents serious factual, legal and substantive errors,” Hikmet Hajiyev, an assistant to Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, told The Associated Press, on Wednesday.

In December, crowds of demonstrators who claimed to be environmental activists blocked the Lachin Corrirdor. Azerbaijan later established a military checkpoint on the road, blocking traffic that it alleged was carrying weapons and other contraband.

In Kornidzor, near the Azerbaijan border, a line of 19 trucks loaded with some 360 tons of medicine and food supplies have been parked for two weeks waiting for permission to cross.

Vardan Sargsyan, a representative of a crisis management working group for Nagorno Karabakh set up by the Armenian government, told The Associated Press the Armenian government had asked for permission for the trucks to cross via Russian peacekeepers and provided details on their contents but so far received no response from Azerbaijan.

“Unfortunately, there have been many attempts from the Azerbaijani side to manipulate this situation,” he said. “We just hope that this humanitarian initiative will be accepted as humanitarian and that it will be possible to transfer the goods."

The International Committee of the Red Cross has also complained of being unable to bring aid shipments into the isolated enclave during the blockade, although the organization was permitted to evacuate a limited number of patients to Armenia for medical care.

Ocampo said the U.N. Security Council should refer the situation to the International Criminal Court, a step that would be necessary for the ICC to take it up because Azerbaijan is not a signatory to the statute that created the court.

It is not clear if Russia would use its veto power on the Security Council against such a move. Russia has faced persistent criticism for its peacekeepers' inaction in the blockade.

"Russia, responsible for peacekeeping in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the US, promoting current negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, are state parties of the Genocide Convention. ... They have a privileged position to prevent this genocide. Their intense confrontation due to the Ukrainian conflict should not transform the Armenians into collateral victims," Ocampo wrote.

___

Associated Press writers Jim Heintz in Tallinn, Estonia, and Aida Sultanova in London contributed to this report.

TURKEY'S WAR ON KURDISTAN

Assad blames Erdogan for violence in Syria and insists on a pullout of Turkish troops

In this photo released on the official Telegram page of the Syrian Presidency, Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks during an interview in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023. Assad blasted Turkey in comments published Wednesday blaming it for the spread of "terrorism" and trying to make its military presence in the war-torn country legitimate.

 (Syrian Presidency Telegram page via AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

BASSEM MROUE and KAREEM CHEHAYEB
Updated Wed, August 9, 2023 

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad slammed Turkey in comments published Wednesday, blaming Ankara for the uptick in violence in his war-torn country and insisting on the withdrawal of Turkish forces from Syria.

Assad spoke in an interview with Sky News Arabia, his first interview with a foreign media outlet in months. The interview will be fully aired later Wednesday, but Sky News Arabia released some excerpts before the broadcast.

Turkey is a main backer of armed opposition fighters who have been trying to remove Assad from power and has carried out three major incursions into northern Syria since 2016. Turkish forces control parts of northern Syria.

Assad, who is backed by Russia and Iran, has managed over the past few years to retake most of the territory with the help of his allies, and turn the tide of war in his favor. Syrian rebels and Turkey-backed opposition forces now only hold a small northwestern corner of Syria, where fighting and violence have persisted.

“Terrorism in Syria is made in Turkey,” Assad said.

He also denied rumors of an upcoming meeting between him and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, despite meetings between Turkey and Syria’s defense and foreign ministers under Russian and Iranian mediation to restore strained ties.

Damascus maintains that Ankara must put forward a timetable for the withdrawal of Turkish troops from Syria in order to normalize relations. In May, the ministers agreed to set up a “road map” to improve relations.

“Erdogan’s objective in meeting me is to legitimize the Turkish occupation in Syria,” Assad said in Wednesday's interview. “Why should I and Erdogan meet? To have soft drinks?”

In recent months, Syria has also improved relations with some countries that had backed the opposition since the 2011 outbreak of the country's civil war.

For the first time in more than a decade, Assad participated in the Arab League summit hosted by Saudi Arabia in May, marking Syria's return to the Arab fold. But the United States, a key Saudi ally, has opposed normalizations with Damascus without a political solution to the conflict.

Some Arab countries have blamed Syria for the flow of drugs into oil-rich Persian Gulf nations since the war began. The drug trade, estimated to be worth billions, has been a priority in regional talks with Damascus.

“The countries that created chaos in Syria are responsible for the drug business,” Assad said.

Assad said that a behind-the-scenes dialogue between Damascus and Washington that started several years ago and went on sporadically “did not lead to any results.” He claimed Damascus has been able “through different means” to overcome U.S. sanctions.

One of the main topics discussed between U.S. and Syrian officials over the past years was the fate of Americans who went missing in Syria, including journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared in 2012.

Two U.S. officials — including Washington's top hostage negotiator, Roger Carstens — made a secret visit to Damascus some years ago to seek information on Tice and other missing Americans. It was the highest-level U.S. talks in years with Assad's government, though Syrian officials offered no meaningful information on Tice.

Syria’s war has killed a half-million people, wounded more than a million, left large parts of the nation destroyed and displaced half the country’s prewar population of 23 million. The fighting has mostly stalemated in the past years.

More than 5 million Syrians are refugees — mostly in neighboring countries, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

“We knew since the start of the war that it is going to be long,” Assad said.

___

Albert Aji contributed to this report from Damascus, Syria.

World Bank halts new Uganda loans over anti-LGBTQ+ law

Thomas Mackintosh & Mercy Juma - BBC News
Wed, August 9, 2023 

Uganda's government resisted pressure to drop the Anti-Homosexuality legislation

The World Bank says it is halting new loans to Uganda because a new anti-gay law contradicts its core values.

Homosexual acts were already illegal in Uganda, but anyone now convicted faces life imprisonment under the new law which was enacted in May.

The World Bank said it was committed to helping all Ugandans without exception to "escape poverty, access vital services, and improve their lives".

Uganda dismissed the move by the World Bank as unjust and hypocritical.

Its ambassador to the United Nations called the move super "draconian".

In a tweet, Ambassador Adonia Ayebare said it was time to rethink the World Bank's work methods and the board's decisions.

The Anti-Homosexuality law imposes the death penalty for so-called aggravated cases, which include having gay sex with someone below the age of 18 or where someone is infected with a life-long illness including HIV.

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After deploying a team in May to Uganda, the World Bank released a statement on Tuesday saying the law "fundamentally contradicts the World Bank Group's values".

It noted its vision "includes everyone irrespective of race, gender, or sexuality".

As a result, the World Bank said "no new public financing to Uganda will be presented to our Board of Executive Directors" pending a review of the efficacy of new measures put up in the context of the new legislation.

In response to the World Bank's decision, Uganda's state minister for foreign affairs Okello Oryem queried the consistency of the move compared to other countries.

"There are many Middle East countries who do not tolerate homosexuals, they actually hang and execute homosexuals," she said, according to Reuters news agency.

"In the US many states have passed laws that are either against or restrict activities of homosexuality... so why pick on Uganda?"

The legislation has been condemned by Ugandan campaign groups, which have instituted court action to annul the legislation on the grounds that it is discriminatory and it violates the rights of LGBTQ+ people.

But it remains unclear when hearings will begin.

The World Bank joins the US in imposing sanctions against Uganda over the Anti-Homosexuality law.